[Comment by Selector]

Taking animals and insects as her motifs, Tamada has thus far created pieces that are sometimes heartwarming and sometimes dynamic in character. The sense of affinity that comes from use of everyday cardboard generates a synergy that has helped to make her art popular with a diverse audience in all age groups, from young to old. Tamada is set apart from other artists who have taken note of cardboard in recent years by her rigorous pursuit of it as material going back to the level of pulp as opposed to its mere use as is. Behind this pursuit lie doings in her university days, when she majored in oil painting. Feeling the limits of oil paints themselves, she stopped using them and repeatedly experimented with other materials as painting media. For example, she sometimes collected twigs whose color attracted her, put them into a blender to pulverize them, and then mixed the resulting wooden powder with bonding agent to get the proper consistency. At some point, it occurred to her that this might be the same process as that for making paper. She was simultaneously drawn to the color and texture resembling those of brown paper. She said that this eventually led her to cardboard, whose color and physical feel were taken as objects of her esthetic sensibility.